Celeste Malfoy: The Wild Child
by Moxie
Summary: I actually posted this a while back, but it got deleted and I'm reposting it. ::grins:: Well, Celeste Malfoy is obviously connected to Draco Malfoy, but how? (Note: There is also a sequel to this - just check in my profile. ^_^)
1. Who am I?

Celeste Malfoy set her garbage bag down and looked about her surroundings. Pink. She wrinkled her nose. Pink. She hated pink. It was so...so stereotypical of girls to like pink, and she hated stereotypes. But then she heaved a sigh and sat down on the obnoxiously pink blanket. This had to be better than what she left behind, which was basically the gutter. Flopping onto her back, she reflected. Since she had been about four, she had been thrown around to different foster homes and orphanages, and this one was her recent stay. Celeste grimaced sardonically at the light pink celing. It'll be about two months before they throw good old Celeste Malfoy somewhere else, she thought. About three years ago, she might have felt self-pity for herself, but now she had become rather indifferent to her 'situation', many people would put it. Despite all of her moving around, she was an incredibly intelligent person, shrewd and calculating. Many people would consider these slimy and nasty traits, but they helped Celeste get through her everyday life. She also had a strong affection for music, and whimsey in general, after a day of putting up with people, it was easy to retreat into the wonderful world of music and literature. There was a knock at the door. Celeste rasied her head. 

"Yes?" she asked, a bit irratably. She did not like to be intrupted when she was thinking or doing anything pertaining to her private time. The door open, and a short, stout woman came in, looking about thirty. She had short, curly, almost black hair, and deep green eyes. She gave Celeste a warm smile, which Celeste did not return. 

"You must be Celeste Malfoy. My name is Cindy Kormic. It's nice to have you here," she smiled again, and Celeste rolled her bright blue eyes back into her head. 

"That's me," she said in an absentminded tone, still staring at the celing. Celeste really wasn't that mean or scarcastic of a person, she just didn't know people well enough to be very friendly with them. Cindy didn't seem to mind that much, though. 

"It's very nice to have you here, Miss Malfoy. I hope we can become good friends in the time alloted to us," Celeste snorted and sat up. This speech was getting ridiculously corny to listen to. She got off the bed and walked up to Cindy. 

"You'll change your mind soon enough," Celeste said coolly. Cindy Kormic blinked as the silver-blonde headed girl walked out the door. Before Celeste left the room totally, she put a hand on the doorframe. "It was nice meeting you too," she left the room. Cindy stood there, not knowing quite what to think of this strange new girl. Most of the other foster children were happy and grateful to be taken out of the orphanedges. Cindy smiled. Even though she seemed a very cold person, she had already taken a certain shine to this Miss Malfoy. She chuckled to herself and went to go make dinner. 

# # # 

It was not cold out, being the beginning of June, so Celeste didn't need to wear a jacket to walk around the Kormic's farm. Being a city girl at heart, the smell of cow manuer and fresh hay was rather overpoweing, and she missed the gentle hum of the traffic that she had heard all of her life. It had become a rather comforting lullaby that had lulled her to sleep on the roughest nights, and it seemed too quiet without it. She heard a snort behind her. Celeste whirled around to find the prettiest jet-black horse that she had ever seen, and it was watching her from inside a wooden pen. Celeste smiled. She wasn't that fond of people, but she did have a passion for animals, especially for strong, handsome ones like horses. She looked around to make sure nobody was near, and cautiously approached the fence. The horse nickered, but stayed there. Celeste stopped about three feet from the horse and held out her hand. The horse nuzzled it, and Celeste laughed. Stepping closer, she stroked the horses head for a while. The horse whinnied, but Celeste heard words. 

__

Come on in, child. I don't bite. Celeste had to hold onto the rail to keep from collapsing on the spot. She looked around again to make sure nobody was in earshot. 

"Did-did you just talk to me?" the horse bobbed it's head up and down, as if an effort to nod yes at her. _My name is Inca. I assume that you would be Celeste Malfoy?_ Celeste dumbly nodded, and the horse nickered impatiently. _Can you ride? I have a lot to tell you._ Celeste was no athlete, but she managed to scrabble over the fence, and clambored clumsily onto Inca's unsaddled back. The horse began to walk through the fields while talking to her. _Like I have told you before, the horse began, my name is Inca, and I have lived on this farm for over a hundred years._

Celeste nearly fell off Inca's sleek back. 

"A hundred years?! But-but-but horses don't live that long!" she exclaimed, feeling struck by the element of surprise. Inca chuckled in a horse-like way. 

__

That's because, dearie, I'm not a horse. I'm a distant descendant of the so-called mythical horse Pegasus. I'm better known as a Pegasteed. Celeste started. 

"Does Cindy Kormic know about this?" she asked, feeling incredibly stupid and surprised at the same time, making her head feel muddled. Inca sighed. 

__

Yes. So does Martin - that's her husband - and their daughter, Katelin knows too. That's the entire reason for bringing you here, so they could know if you were one of them or not. 

"Are all the horses here Pegasteeds? One of whom? Am I one of whomever they were looking for?" Celeste felt totally riddled with questions, and she now went from muddleheaded to dizzy. Inca gave a little horse snort as a robin passed over her head. It chirruped hello to Celeste. 

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Yes. This is one of the only Pegasteed farms in the entire world. One of the magical beings, whom you might know better as mages or witches and wizards. Yes, you are one of them. You can talk to me. If you weren't, then I'd just appear as a regular horse to you. You happen to have the lucky talent of being able to speak to animals. People that can speak to one animal are very rare, but you can talk to all animals, which makes you even more rare. 

"How do you know that I can talk to all animals?" Celeste asked indignantly. Inca shook out her mane and quickened her pace to a quick trot. 

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You heard the robin, dear. It said hello to you. If that isn't speaking to you, I don't know what is. Celeste digested this, until something made her brain click. 

"You mean I'm a wizard?!" Inca shook her head. 

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No, dearest. You're a witch. Inca chortled while Celeste growled in her throat. 

"A witch? You're pulling my leg. Those things only exist in-in story books!" To her great surprise, Inca gave another one of her motherly chuckles before answering. 

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And do you not like to pretend you are a witch in a fairy story, Miss Malfoy? Celeste blushed. It was one of her secret fancies to pretend that she was in the stories that she was reading, particularly the ones about magic. It broke the monotony of life down. Inca shifted Celeste on her back before continuing. 

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I also am prone to assume that you like books about magical things, dragons and such? Celeste nodded, unaware that the Pegasteed couldn't see her. 'The Hobbit' had always been one of her favorite books. 

__

That was your outlet for your unused magic. I do believe that that's why the magic tester didn't pick you out. You spent too much time worrying about where you were going to live next and spending the rest of your time dreaming, so you used all to most of your excess magic up thinking about that. "Can the Kormic's talk to animals, too?" Celeste asked, still feeling a little wobbly kneed, and was very glad that she needn't walk. Inca shuffled. 

__

Sometimes. But they learned how to talk to us out of books, so they aren't very fluentin their speech. You're the only human being I've had a decent conversation with in all my years. Hearing this, Celeste felt flattered. 

"Wow. That's a lot to absorb for one day," Celeste said, as she noticed that they were nearing the farm house. Inca nodded. 

__

It is. Do you mind being let off here? All this walking with your added weight is too much for these poor old bones, Inca chuckled. Celeste grinned behind her hand. 

"That's all right, Inca. Thanks for the ride," she slid off the horse's back, and Inca shook out her mane again. _My pleasure, sweetheart. It was good talking to you, Celeste._ Celeste started towards the white house, but was startled by a sudden pounding of hooves. She turned around in time to see Inca gallop across the lawn. Celeste grinned even wider. 

"Over a hundred years old and still kickin," she turned and walked in the house. 

# # # 

"Now, I'm warning you, she's kind of tart," Cindy Kormic said, ladling out the noodle soup. Martin Kormic snorted a bit. 

"Being a Malfoy, it kind of gives you leave to be tart," he responded with a voice that was a tad sour. Katelin smiled at her father. The Kormic's were a family in a long line of Hufflepuffs, and Lucius Malfoy's slacky ways earned no respect from her father. 

"Now Daddy, you don't know if her last name makes her sour. The poor girl was tossed around from house to house ever since she was a young girl. That'd give anybody a reason to be sour," Martin Kormic was in the same year as Lucius Malfoy, and they had become fast enemies, since Lucius had bought his way through the school, and from his daughter's reports, the young Draco Malfoy was doing the same thing. When he had heard the new foster child was a Malfoy also, he nearly refused to take her in. 

"Well, all right, I'll give her that," Martin admitted reluctantly. He looked up. "'Wonder what she'll say when she finds out that she's the possible heiress to a fourtune of gold and jewels," Cindy winced. 

"I'd rather not think about that...Oh, shush, here she comes." Celeste came in, in a considerably better mood than she left with. She surveyed the table. 

"Oh, hello there. You must be Martin and Katelin. Nice to meet you. I'll go wash up before I come in for dinner, kay?" she left again. Martin looked at his wife. 

"Oh yeah, she's bitter all right," he said, grinning at Cindy, who threw a damp napkin at him. 

"She was in a terrible mood when I came in to see her this afternoon. Well, a walk outside can change your mood, I guess," Katelin blinked. 

"How did she know our names?" she asked. Cindy dropped the ladle into the pot before answering. 

"Hmmm?" she asked her daughter while wiping up a bit of broth she had spilt onto the countertop. 

"How did she know our names?" Katelin repeated, still looking thunderstruck. "I never told her my name. I know you introduced yourself, Mommy, but I haven't said anything to her yet, and I don't think that Daddy did either," Cindy thought about that, but didn't have time to answer, since Celeste came back into the room. 

"Celeste, dear," Cindy said, taking a slice of bread, "how did you know Martin and Katelin's names?" Celeste reached over for the butter before answering. 

"Inca told me," she decided that this was the perfect time to see if she was going crazy or not. The Kormics blinked at her. 

"Inca? You mean Inca the horse?" Martin asked, his black eyes shooting over to his wife, as if to say "this is a surprise!" 

"No, I mean Inca the Pegasteed," Celeste said, swallowing a spoonful of soup. "You're a really good cook, you know that?" 

"Thank you, dear," Cindy said, biting into a slice of buttered bread. "But," she continued after she'd swallowed, "how did you know Inca was a Pegasteed?" Celeste started. So she wasn't going completely mental, after all. 

"Err, she...told me?" Celeste guessed, hoping that that was the right answer. Katelin looked over at her with inquistive black eyes. 

"You can talk to animals, too?" Celeste shrugged. 

"'S far 's I know. She talked to me, and I talked back. Can you pass me the pepper, please?" Martin handed her the pepper shaker. 

"So, err, can you talk to any...other animals?" Celeste started to get a bit annoyed with all these questions. 

"What is this, the third degree?" she snapped at him, before she was able to restrain herself. She blushed as soon as the words had flown out of her mouth. "Err, sorry. Yes. At least, I think so. A robin told me hello while I was riding on Inca..." Katelin dropped her spoon into her bowl, where it fell with a clatter. 

"You can ride Inca?" she asked, obviously flabbergasted. Celeste looked around the table. Three sets of eyes looked back at her with curiousity. 

"Well....yes. Isn't that was Pegasteeds are for?" she asked, looking back. Cindy gave a short snort of laughter. 

"No no dear. Well, they can be, but these types are specially bred for drawing carrages. Most of the time, they'd be too proud to let a human on their back," she chortled as she scooped up another spoonful of soup. "You, miss, must have a way with animals." Celeste finished her soup and pushed the bowl away from her. Cindy looked like she had just started to snap back to life and pushed herself away from the table. "Well, then, Katelin, why don't you take Celeste out to the barn for chores, hmm?" Katelin groaned and got up out of the chair. 

"Come on, Celeste. We'd better go feed the animals before the Queen Mother has a heart attack on us," Cindy groaned and rolled her eyes. She brandished a wooden spoon at the two like a sword, and waved it at them. 

"Out with you two! Go on, shoo!" she crowed playfully at the pair, who walked out the screen door. It banged shut. Cindy waited until her daughter and Celeste had rounded the corner of the white farmhouse before taking out a wand. Muttering something to it, the plates floated over to the sink and began cleaning themselves. 

"Lo and behold," Martin said, his eyes twinkling at his wife. "I do believe that we have a new wizard at the Kormic residence," Cindy gave a sad smile. 

"It all depends on what Lucius Malfoy thinks of it, dear. You know," she said thoughtfully, "I don't believe she's a wizard," Martin blinked at her. 

"What do you mean?" he asked. Cindy sighed and leaned against the sink. She flicked her wand again to start some water for tea. 

"Honey, she must be at least fifteen," she said patiently. "If she's a wizard, then why wasn't she picked out to go to Hogwarts, or some other school? I believe she's a squib." 

"What makes you say that?" Cindy sighed. Her husband was a nice enough man, but he was rather dense. "Why do you think she was turned out, otherwise? Do you think that the Malfoys want to live up to a non-magical daughter, when they've been shunning non-magical people all their shallow lives? I think not." Martin chewed on that for a moment. 

"You don't think she's-she's part elemental, do you?" Cindy flicked her wand to dry the dishes. 

"I believe that she has Wild Magic, Martin. And I'll be damned if this isn't one of the strongest cases I've ever read about or seen." Martin leaned forward in his chair. 

"Wild Magic? But that hasn't been reported anywhere since...since at least a century ago!" he cried. "Why wasn't it picked out before?" 

Cindy shrugged and drew out two clean mugs. Placing a teabag in each one, she answered. "I think that they finally got it through their heads at the Ministry of Magic that Wild Magic is so rare, it's almost obsolete. I don't know if they even encourage it anymore. I'm sure it could be coaxed out of a few individuals if they really wanted to, but they don't seem to think it's worth the time or money." Martin shrugged and looked at his evening copy of the Daily Prophet. 

"How 'bout those Huntington Highriders?" he remarked to his wife when he had gotten to the Quidditch section of his paper. 

# # # 

Meanwhile, Celeste and Katelin were feeding and watering the Pegasteeds for the night, and putting them into their stalls. While Katelin was telling her how to do everything, the horses seemed to have a set idea on how they wanted things to go. 

__

The water's not cold enough. Let the hose run for a couple of moments before you even think about giving me any! 

__

No, no, no, stupid. He eats that gross stuff out of the bag! Not I! Only fresh oats and vegtables for me, thank you very much. 

Celeste rolled her eyes and reached for the bag where the strawberry's, named Skyflame, food was before pouring it into his bin. 

"I told you, they're picky eaters," Katelin grinned when she saw Celeste roll her eyes. Celeste put a hand to her silver-blonde hair and pulled it out of her face, and went to the next horse stall. It was Inca. 

__

Hello there, dearie. And how was your supper? Celeste looked over to make sure that Katelin was otherwise occupied before whispering back her answer. 

"Fine, thanks. And how was your run?" Inca gave her what looked like a horse's wry wink, almost. 

__

Very refreshing. Now, if you don't mind, I like the food in the swamp-green colored bag, right over there, by that replusive-looking saddle. She pointed with one hooved foot, to show Celeste. Celeste found the bag and brought it over to Inca's trough. When Inca buried her nose in her food, Celeste turned back to Katelin, who had finished her row already. 

"Come on now," Katelin beckoned. "Let's go feed the ducks." 

# # # 

It was another half-hour before the twosome finished their chores and went back into the farmhouse, where they were quite relieved had two teacups brimming with amber tea, and a large plate full of chocolate-chip cookies. Celeste tore into a cookie. 

"So," she asked, trying to start some conversation. "Where do you go to school at?" Katelin reached for a cookie before answering. 

"Hogwarts. It's a school where they teach magic." Celeste's eyes widened and she put her cookie down. 

"They teach magic? I thought you had to be born with it! So anybody could just waltz in and say, 'Okay, I'm here, make me a magician'?" Katelin shook her head. 

"No, you do have to be born with it. They just sharpen your skills and give you a wand and such. I don't understand why you weren't invited, since you can talk to animals. If you want to know more about it, there's a book in the living room. When we're finished in here, you can go look at it," Celeste nodded and turned back to her cookie. 

When they'd finished, Katelin led her into a living room, that was warm and homey looking, with a roaring crimson fire in the fireplace. Katelin showed her the bookcase, and pulled out a leather bound book that said in golden script: 'A History of Hogwarts'. Celeste opened the book to the first page, where there was a picture of a large-castle-type-building. When she squinted at it, she saw that the trees in the picture were moving! She dropped the book and it fell to the floor. Katelin looked up. 

"What's the matter?" 

"The picture is _moving_!" Katelin looked at her as if Celeste had been surprised over the sky being blue. 

"Err, yeah...Oh, sorry. I forgot. Pictures of people from wizard's camaras move. Don't ask me why." Celeste picked up the book and started reading it again. She lost track of time as she was captured in the realm of Hogwarts, the houses, the people, the founders, even the boring back pages of the book about the enchantments that were placed on the school intrested Celeste. When she finally shut the book, it was eleven-thirty, and Katelin had gone up to her room. She put the book back into the bookcase, and went to the bathroom to freshen up, then slowly, tiredly clambored the steps to her pink room. Not even bothering to put nightclothes on, she just pulled off her pants and slid under the sheets, which was warmed instantly. Before drifting off into sleep entirely, she heard the words to a song, obviously from a radio that Katelin had left on. 

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"In the arms of the angel...far away from here...from this stark cold hotel room...and the endlessness that you feel...you are pulled from the wreakage...of your silent revelrie...in the arms of the angel...may you find...some comfort...here..."


	2. What Do You Hear in the Night?

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"May you find...some comfort...here..." With those words in a fashion of a soothing, calm song that would make most people sleepy, Draco Malfoy sprang awake. It took his eyes a few minutes to adjust to the pitch black of his huge room at Malfoy Manor, but when they managed to focus, they hit his clock on the bedside stand. It read one-thirty. Cursing whatever woke him up, he leaned back into his pillows. They were very faint, but the last notes from the pretty song rang in his head. His tired eyes narrowed in the darkness. For the past couple of weeks, strange things had been going on in his head. First it had been the grating noise of what was known to muggles as 'traffic', then it was the sounds of horses and other animals, now it was music. Draco's eyes loosened and shut on themselves. A color outline of a girl swam on his eyelids. It was always the same girl. Pale skin, sapphire eyes, and sliver-blonde hair, just like his. He didn't know why, but he felt a strong attachement to this human being - if she even existed. The music began in his head again. Growling, he stuck his fingers in his ears and rubbed until the mysterious tune basically faded. Curling back up into a ball, he fell asleep almost immedeatly. 

# # # 

Celeste Malfoy awoke with a start. She wasn't exactly a deep sleeper, but this time she woke up with a terrible feeling. Sweat crawled down her body like ants, and her head felt pressured and heavy. Throwing off the carnation pink cover, Celeste ran over to the window and yanked it up. Leaning over the side, she took a few huge breaths of summer air before looking around. She no longer felt like she was going to explode, but she had the feeling like someone was calling out for help somewhere, and it made her knees knock together so hard that she fell to the ground. Praying that the feeling would stop soon, she crawled towards her jeans and pulled them on. The ground felt like it was surging below her feet. Would it ever stop? Gathering her thick hair in her fist, she fished around in her jean pocket for a ponytail holder, only to find that there wasn't anything there. She decided to go out for a while, just to get some fresh air. She climbed the trellis that was by her window and leapt to the ground. As soon as she hit, she heard a voice behind her. 

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Ah, I see that you hear the dragon's cry too. Celeste turned around, expecting to find Inca. Instead, in her place was a purely white stallion, looking brave and tall in the moonlight. 

"Who are you?" she asked, as she did not see this Pegasteed at the stable earlier that she and Katelin had worked at. The horse nickered. 

__

I'm Charmer. I live over in another stable. Now, stop pestering me with questions, so we can go save that dragon. Celeste blinked. "Dragon?" she asked incredulously. "A dragon is making that noise?" Another feeling of plain fear and loss swamped her, making her fall to her knees. Charmer helped her up. 

__

Yes. That's a dragon's cry of anguish. Most humans can't comprehend the noise, so nobody hears it. I was sent for you by the other horses, so we could get some sleep. "You can hear it too?" Celeste wanted to know. "Why did they send you?" Charmer sighed. 

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Animals can understand eachother, and I'm the fastest Pegasteed here. Now, stop making me answer your infernal questions, so we can go! Celeste jumped onto the horses back, and held onto his mane. Charmer went faster and faster, until the world was one dark smear to her struggling eyelids. Charmer jumped, and they were flying above the world, but he was still running, seemingly on air. Celeste shrieked in delight as she saw the world get smaller and smaller beneath them as Charmer arched gracefully in the air, still on his smooth canter. They landed in a clearing near the a forest that was around a mile or two away from the Kormic's farm. Charmer stopped and motioned for Celeste to get off. Celeste looked around. 

"Where's the dragon?" Charmer snorted, as if he was losing patience, and losing it fast. 

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I don't know! You're the one with the magic here, you find them! Celeste looked up, startled. "I don't have any magic! I wasn't chosen to go to any magical school!" Charmer stamped his hoof on the ground and laid back his ears. 

__

Damnit child! Just because you weren't chosen to go to any magical school doesn't mean you're not magical! There are more than one type of magic, you know. And you happen to have animal magic. All you have to do is try! Celeste could see that Charmer was not named for a charming personality. 

"Oh, all right already. I'll try," she didn't quite know how to start, but she shut her eyes and looked. Nothing happened for a few moments. Then, just before she started to lose patience, she felt a little tugging inside her body. It could be compared to a seamstress pulling out a singular thread from a clump of yarn. Her eyelids lit up with a bright yellowish-copper light - it was pure agony to her eyes - she tried to scream, but the sound was caught and hurled back down her throat - she collapsed to the ground - ...It all stopped. She felt weightless, floating around in her mind...it was like she was completly free. She called out with her mind. 

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---I'm looking for some, er, dragons? Anybody seen any?--- For a few seconds, nobody answered. Then a snowy owl fluttered above and landed in a tree. It looked at Celeste's body gravely. 

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I have, night-sister. I will show you, and come quick, as they are scaring all the meat away. Celeste snapped back to her consicious self, and looked up to see the white owl fly beyond some trees. 

"Follow that owl!" she ordered Charmer, and they ran after the owl in the night trees. Funny as it was so dark, Celeste could see almost perfectly, as if she had gained night vision. After about another fifteen minutes of twisting and turning about, Celeste thought she was just going to fall over in the woods, they made it to a clearing. Daybreak was coming, and fingers of red streaked in the sky. In the brightning light, Celeste saw perhaps the saddest sight she had ever seen. A dead dragon lay sprawled out ungracefully in the small field, it's blood staining the ground a muddy blackish color. Even in the dim light, Celeste could see that it's scales were a shimmering emerald green color, with wings in a purplish shade, and long silvery claws were flexed in a threatining position. Celeste approached the beast carefully, and walked up to the place where most of the blood was spewing out - the chest area. Rounding it's head, she saw that there were about seventeen arrows stuck in it's heart in all directions. 

"Stupid, ignorant humans," Celeste said, clenching her fists in anger. She heard Charmer nicker and point a hoof to the left of her. Turning around, she saw two dragon kits - one orange, one purplish - looking up at her. She walked up to them carefully, and put her hand down to the purple one to sniff. It snapped at her. 

"You stop that!" Celeste scolded, feeling some of the yellowish-copper fire release from her body. The kits looked back up at her humbly, and the purple one butted up against her hand apologetically. Celeste tried to communicate to them, but all she got in responce were little baby dragon blurbles and burps. 

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They're too young, Celeste turned to face Charmer. _It's like trying to talk to a newborn babe._ Celeste had to agree that he was right. The two dragonet's were clamboring at her jean pants now, trying to stand. Celeste snorted. 

"Oh, so now all of a sudden I'm your best friend, when five minutes ago you wanted to kill me," the orange one gave her a pitious look with golden-colored eyes. Celeste bent to pick the twosome up. This time they didn't snap, but they grabbed onto her green shirt tightly, so she could use her hands. Celeste swung onto Charmer's back. 

"Home, Charmer, and make it quick," she implored the white stallion. "I don't want to be spotted by any non-magical people on the way back," Charmer took off. 

It was another half-hour before they got home, so that made it around four-thirty before they finally landed. Charmer stopped beside the trellis that Celeste had climbed up earlier. Celeste looked up at the giant ladder-thing, and suddenly her bones felt like soup. 

"Charmer," she yawned, "I can't climb up that, especially not with dragons clamboring at my shirt," Charmer huffed, sending specks of moisture out his nose. 

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Come along, then, he said to her. She feebily jumped onto his back again, muscles screaming with tired pain. He walked into a stable to the left of the house, and she slid off. 

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There's an empty stall to the left of Starsight. That's the horse at the end of the row. Charmer pointed to a white-specked pony at the end of the stalls. Celeste nodded, and turned back to the Pegasteed. 

"Are you thirsty, or anything?" Charmer pawed at the ground, as if considering this thoughtful proposal. 

__

I could use a drink, if you don't mind. Celeste sighed and got around to the pump on the other side of the water trough. After pumping for a few moments, the basin filled with cold water. Charmer dunked his muzzle in and started to drink. Celeste's two dragon charges flopped off her shoulders and started to drink greedily also. Celeste wasn't so much thirsty as sleepy, and her eyes began to burn painfully. She rubbed at them, which didn't help much. When the dragons finished, Celeste scooped them up, and headed towards the last stall. It was full of sweet-smelling hay. The dragons made comfortable nests for themselves, and promptly fell asleep. Celeste curled up in the hay and did the same. 

# # # 

Draco stared morosely at his breakfast plate. He didn't sleep well last night at all. Strange dreams, disturbing dreams had been pestering at his brain the entire night. The worst part of all of it was the fact that he couldn't remember anything about any of the dreams. He had dream fragments, but that wasn't enough to tell him anything. A white horse...a gigantic black shape, seeping blood in the darkness...Dragons...flying through the air...it was all too weird. He was also so tired, his muscles burned, and the most aggravating part of all was he didn't know why! He scowled at his eggs, like it was their fault he was feeling terrible. 

"I'm going mad," he told himself flatly. "First I start hearing weird songs, and now I'm seeing things!" he put his fork down, feeling like he was going to retch at any moment. A cool hand placed itself on his forehead, making him start. 

"Are you all right, young Master Malfoy? You don't look well," looking up, he saw that it was one of his servants, known as Ampala, looking down at him. To be completly honest, he didn't feel all that great. His muscles were still on fire with pain, he had a terrible headache, and he felt like he was going to fall asleep at any moment. But he squirmed out of her grip. 

"I'm fine. Now stop touching me," from across the table, he could see his father smiling, amused, over his teacup. Ampala shrugged and started humming a song while dusting. 

"Vacation's where I wanna be...party on the beach where the fun is free...we don' need a holiday to start to celebrate...cause I need a break, I need a vacation." She stopped gurgling the song in her throat and started to hum a little piece that resembled a Hawaiian louou song. It was a really annoying, yet catchy party tune, Draco thought as he climbed the stairs. 

# # # 

__

"Cause I need a break, I need a vacation..." Celeste pressed a hand to her forehead as she heard the final words to a song. She shook her head, and felt incredibly muddled. Strange dreams she had had. Though she could only remember snippets of each one, they were quite vivid. A boy, about a year or so younger than her, with silver-blond hair, and icy gray eyes...at breakfast...feeling ill...Song...she shook her head, as if trying to get rid of the dreams. She glanced around to get a terrible jolt to her heart...The dragons were gone! Leaping out of the nest of hay, she sprinted out of the barn to see two hooded figures running off...with two yowling baby dragons! Celeste felt rage build up in her body. Unknownst to her at the time, her body had started to glow an eriee golden-copper color. She screamed in anger, and a shockwave of golden power ran along the ground. The figures stopped, and a split second later, about fifty Pegasteeds were breaking out of their stalls, and charging. The figures screamed in terror, but held on to the baby dragons. Celeste yelled again, and this time, a swarm of birds, Robins, Cardinals, Nightengales, Swifts, Woodpeckers, and any multitude of others gathered in a multicolored swarm and started to peck and beat at the two people untill they released the two dragonets. They half-stumbled half-scampered over to Celeste, who picked them up. 

"Enough!" Celeste ordered to the animals. They backed off of the two figures, that were wearing black cloaks and cowering. When they were sure that they would not be attacked, they stood up and slowly turned around. One of them had long black hair, pulled back into a loose ponytail, with a black mustache. He had bluish eyes, and was sporting a rather large cut on his forehead, probably from a Cardinal's beak. His partner had a startiling shock of red hair, cropped short to his head, with a pair of brown eyes. They looked at her and the dragons. Celeste spoke. 

"Just what the hell did you think you were doing?" she asked indignatly. They raised their eyebrows. The black-headed man spoke. 

"I'm Zachary Elisasmet, and this is my partner, Charlie Weasley," Charlie bobbed his head in retrospect. Celeste growled. 

"I didn't ask you what your names were, I asked you what you were doing stealing my dragons!" Charlie cleared his throat. 

"Miss, we are with the Wizard Institute for Dragon Protection, the WIDP. You happen to have a rare pair of Arabian Sandwedgers. We've come to take them to a place where they can be properly taken care of and released back in the wild," Celeste fumed. 

"I didn't say you could take them to your fancy reasearch lab!" she screamed, sending out another wave of copper power out, making the animals quiver. Charlie and Zachery stared at her with intrest, forgetting about the dragonets for a minute. 

"Miss, how did you do that?" Zachery asked. Celeste, seeing that the animals were starting to get riled, tried to calm down. 

"I don't know. It just happened. I can talk to animals too, if that means anything," Charlie raised his eyebrows, and was about to speak, when he was intrupted. 

"What in tarnation is goin' on here?" came a riled man's voice, donning an overly southern drawl with a sleepy overcoat. Celeste looked up to find the Kormic's walking towards her, dressed in bedtime attire, as it was only eight in the morning. They're eyes widened when they saw Celeste with the dragons, and the two strange men. Charlie cleared his throat. 

"Ma'am, did you know that your child has Wild-" Cindy motioned for the two men to come over to her, and they did. They spoke in such soft murmers, that Celeste couldn't hear a thing. So she just contented herself by stroking the horse's nose that was closest to her, who happened to be a handsome chestnut mare, by the name of Nobility. Celeste rubbed at her tired eyes. She knew she must look terrible, with day-old clothes, hay in her matted hair, andd bags under her eyes from lack of sleep. The orange-scaled dragon wailed pitifully: it was hungry. 

"Excuse me?" she asked irratibly. Celeste didn't have a very sweet temper under the best of conditions, but now that she was starving, lacked sleep, and dirty, she was ten times more critical. "I hate to intrupt your little conversation about me over there, but my dragons are hungry!" The four adults looked over at her. 

"How do you know it is hungry? How do you know it isn't sleepy, or thirsty?" asked Martin calmly. Celeste stamped her foot angrily. 

"I don't know! I mean I do know, but...Arrgh! Why do you pester me with your stupid questions? It needs some cow's cream with butter in it," Katelin started. 

"Why?" Celeste growled, and she briefly flickered her copper-yellow color. The animals around her rustled. 

"Because it is the best subsitute for dragon milk, that's why!" Celeste didn't know how she knew this at all, but a little voice inside her told her that she was right. Charlie rubbed his chin. 

"I see what you mean, Mrs. Kormic. Yes, cow's cream with rich butter is the best substitute for dragon's milk, as it is very thick. Ahh, Miss...Malfoy, was it?" Charlie and Zachary shared a glance at each other. 

"What's wrong with my name?" Celeste fumed. "Does it sound funny to your poor dragon hunting ears?!" Zachary cleared his throat. 

"Any relation to Lucius Malfoy?" he asked, sounding more ridged than intrested. His eyes had gained an icy clip to them, as if this 'Lucius Malfoy' person was earth scum. 

"There's a Lucius Malfoy?" Celeste asked, anger subsiding for moment. "I thought I was the only one." The Kormics called the other two over and began to talk in hushed whispers. Celeste growled in her throat. She didn't like all these secrets that were being kept from her. 

"Why do you whisper so?!" she screamed at the four adults. They turned to stare. The animals around here started to stir. The horses flattened their ears in charging position, and some of the birds took flight, flying around in circles. The dragons began to snap and growl, bearing fully grown white teeth. 

"If you're talking about me, I have a right to know what you're talking about!" she ranted on. Zachery eyed the snapping dragons wairly, and approached. 

"Celeste Malfoy, you have the honor of being the first person in about a century to be born with Wild Magic, and you're brimming with it." 

"What?" asked Celeste helplessly. Charlie put an arm around her shoulder. 

"We've got a lot to explain to you...." 

# # # 

Draco Malfoy sat on the bench, feeling horrible. The summer was just about over, and he had hoped that if he had given it time, the sounds in his head would go away. They hadn't. Actually, they had gotten worse. Now it wasn't just dreams or songs, but it was entire visions and conversations as well. He didn't know why, but he was beginning to hate the blue-eyed silver- blonde headed girl for doing this to him. He had told his father about the voices twenty minutes ago, and he had rushed him here, to a wizard doctor, to see what was wrong. What made him feel worse was the fact that the entire room was full of blithering idiots, muttering to themselves. He couldn't be going insane, he couldn't be. The door swung open, and a young woman, looking about in her twenties stood there. 

"Draco Malfoy?" she called. Draco drug himself to his feet and followed the woman down some white hallways, before they came to an office. "Please sit down," Draco did as he was told. "Now," the woman went on cheerily, "what are we here for?" 

"I've been hearing voices," Draco blurted out. He instantly slapped a hand over his mouth. What had possessed him to tell her that? The woman noticed and grinned wickedly. 

"Sorry, kid. These walls are bewitched with an anti-lying charm, so don't try to lie to me. Now, what do the voices say?" Draco leaned back in his chair and let his mouth rattle for him. 

"They sing songs, real songs, and they make animal sounds. I also have visions of places like farms, even though I've never been to one before," the woman knitted her eyebrows together. 

"I see. Please continue, Mr. Malfoy," Draco sighed before letting his words fly again. 

"I also frequently see a person in these dreams, and even when I'm not dreaming. I have a feeling that she's the one that's doing this to me," the woman nodded. 

"Do you have any idea what she looks like?" Draco almost laughed in spite of himself. Did he have any idea? 

"It's a female, she has silver-blonde hair like me, but it goes down to her mid-back," he motioned with his hands, trying to explain. "She's about a year or so older than I am, and she has blue eyes. I can't know for sure, but whenever I dream of her, she's with animals, so I think she really likes them," he finished. The woman's eyes showed no sign of what she thought. "I'm going completely nuts, aren't I?" he asked sadly. To his surprise, the woman smiled. 

"No, Mr. Malfoy, I don't think so," Draco sat up so suddenly that he nearly lept out of the chair. 

"You don't?!" The woman laughed at his appearent astonishment and confusion. "No. I believe that somewhere out there, you have a blue-eyed silver-blond headed girl that is your telepathic partner. She likes music and animals, and if you ever find her, I believe that she may have had visions of your life," Draco started to splutter. 

"But-but-but....what about the voices?" he felt so elated that he couldn't decide between jumping up and down or bursting into tears. He did neither. 

"Honey, the voices of madness say more intresting things than just singing or making animal sounds. They tell the person that they are God, or something like that. I didn't think that you were insane anyway, when I saw you sitting there," Draco ran out of the room and down the hallways, until he made it back to the waiting room, where his father was waiting. He vaulted himself at his father, nearly knocking him over. 

"Father, Father guess what? I'm not going insane! Isn't that just _great_?!" Mr. Malfoy, who was still trying to keep his balance from his son leaning from on him, didn't answer at first. 

"Yes, that's wonderful, Son," He looked at the brunette who was smirking, amused, at the scene. "So, what about the voices?" The woman walked around to a desk and pulled out some papers. Putting on some spectacles, she reached for a bottle of black ink and a generic white quill. 

"Mr. Malfoy, your son has a telepathic connection with a female that looks exactly like himself," she began to write on a piece of parchment in patient, loopy script. "Does he have any unknown relatations, perhaps a cousin, an aunt, or maybe even a sister?" the doctor stopped writing, and looked at Lucius Malfoy, who's face was ridged with anger, for some reason. Draco couldn't begin to imagine why. 

"No, he does not have a sister!" he cried, making Draco wince. "He is my only child, thank you very much," he grabbed Draco's wrist tightly and drug him out of the waiting room angrily. Draco was totally baffled by his father's sudden change in mood. He didn't have a sister, did he?


	3. Safe Underground

A couple of months passed. June melted into July, which turned into August. Celeste was wiser now than she had been at the beginning of summer. She now knew how to talk to almost any specie of animal that existed (execpt for the horsefly and the duck-billed-platypus) and was doing well on the Kormic's farm. Her two dragons were growing nicely. Celeste looked over with pride to the dragon on her left. His scales were a glowing orange, and he had blazing red wings. When he flew at the top speed that his tiny wings would allow, he looked like a shimmering streak against the sky, earning him the name Sunsmear. 

Looking over at the dragon on the right, Celeste saw the glossy purple sheen of sleek scales. The wings on this dragon were a smooth hunter green color, with the appearence of velvet. A striking contrast to her bright-colored twin, her name was Nightshade. 

Inca whinnied and trotted. The twins scampered to keep up. Celeste giggled. Even though the twins had not gotten much bigger (Arabian Sandwedgers can decide how big they are going to get) they could not grapple onto Celeste's shirt without tearing it badly, and now they had to scamper around on the ground. A flock of sparrows flew over her head, and some of them swooped down and twitted hello. Celeste raised her head and shrieked in sparrow-call back. She felt so implusivly happy that she began to sing. 

"So I was riding through the desert on a horse with no name...it felt good to be out of the rain...in the desert, you can remember your name, cause there ain't no one there to give you no pain..." 

# # # 

"Cause there ain't no one there to give you no pain..." Draco drawled out these words in a melodic fashion at the booksellers. He couldn't help it. And it couldn't have come at a more inoppertune time. Granger, Potter, all the Weasleys, and his father gawked at him in shock. Then Ron began to twitter, followed by the twins, then everybody else fell onto the ground in a sickning display of estatic glee. Even his father was chortling to himself, in spite of everything. Rage boiled up inside Draco. He shut his eyes, and he saw red swimming in front of them. He sent all of his anger with this one comment. 

__

Damn you! Look at what you made me do! # # # 

__

...Look at what you made me do! Celeste blinked, and the whitish-blond boy was there, with people laughing at him. Fury overtook her happy mood, and Inca stopped, as well as her two dragons. They wanted to know what was going on, but Celeste didn't answer them. It wasn't her fault this blasted boy did what ever he did - so why was she so angry? She sent back the comment with not an acid one of her own, but with a potent blast of copper-yellow light, Wild Magic. 

# # # 

Draco's eyes were still shut, but the red was suddenly replaced with a bright flash was yellow. Abruptly, the laughing stopped. Draco cracked his eyes open, and saw that everyone was now staring, flabbergasted at him for some reason. Unknownst to Draco, he was glowing with a faint outline of yellow. When he spoke next, it came out as a lion growl, but words were audible from the deep pitch of it. 

__

---It's not funny, you blithering idiots!--- Draco felt a little prick at each of the pads of his fingers on his right hand, but paid it no heed. The entire group stared at him, even his father looked a bit rattled, which by Draco's view of his father, was a first. Draco swung out his right hand at Ron. He did not make any move to grasp the cloth that was Ron's shirt, but he pulled him up anyway. Looking down at his right hand, Draco nearly fainted to find that he had five long, spindly claws! He was so shocked that he lost his anger, which made the yellowish glow around him fade. The claws reatreated; the skin which they had punctured sealed up as if nothing had happened. Ron fell on the ground. Nobody spoke. Finally, Draco whirled around on his heel and walked out the door. This was getting too weird for his taste. 

# # # 

Celeste saw Cindy Kormic motion her inside. She gave a long, suffering sigh and hopped off Inca. She did so hate to go inside on wonderful evenings like this. But judging by she sun's position in the sky, it was dinner time anyway. She motioned for her two dragons to follow her inside, and they went. While all three of them were washing their hands, Cindy spoke. 

"Celeste, dear," she said while putting a plate of chicken on the table, "where do you go to school at?" Celeste wiped her hands on a cotton towel before answering. 

"Well, I went to school at St. Samuels, but, I wish I could go to a wizard school, considering that I have magic," Cindy felt bad for her charge and walked over to her. 

"I wish you could too, but you don't have the right type of magic. It can't be taught," she looked down at Sunstreak, who was playing with her wand. 

"You stop that!" Celeste scolded, snatching the wood from his scaley fingers. He bowed his head in submission and walked over to his stool at the table. Cindy was about to take the wand from her, when suddenly, there was a bright flash from the end of it, and Celeste, and her dragons disappeared. 

# # # 

It was the first day of school at Hogwarts, and Draco Malfoy was terribly bored. The first years had been sorted, and now they were watching Professor Dumbledore do his normal welcoming speech. Draco yawned. Couldn't he do a new speech every other year, or something? Leaning back in the chair, he looked up at the celing, which looked radient with the colors of the setting sun. He started to drift off into sleep, actually, save for a bright white flash that exploded over the center of the Great Hall. Draco nearly rocketed out of his seat. Was this some new thing the ghosts cooked up? He shot a look over at the Bloody Baron, who had his normal gray ghosty look that he always did. Even Dumbledore stopped speaking and looked at the celing, until the whiteness stopped. Dumbledore looked down with a piercing stare. 

"I would like to know who pulled that on me during my speech," nobody moved. Draco sat ridged in his chair, hoping that nobody was looking for a scapegoat. He looked around, and saw half the Gryffindor table staring at him apprehensivly. Draco sneered back at the lot of them. For once he didn't do anything. 

A screaming sound filled the room. A terrible, high-pitched sound of suprise and terror filled Draco's ears and nearly made him scream too. Then it stopped. A figure came, floating down from the celing, kneeling on two floating things. They all landed on the Gryffindor table. The person cautiously stood up and looked around. Draco gasped loudly and then clapped a hand to his mouth to stifile the sound. But it was too late. The entire school looked at him, and then the girl. She had blue eyes, silver-blond hair, and pale skin. When her eyes settled over on Draco, she gasped as well. Draco stood up. 

"You're the one that was making me sing those stupid songs!" The girl smiled before answering him. 

"And you're the one I've been having dreams about," she looked him over. "Damn, you look familiar," Draco raised an eyebrow. 

"That might be because you look exactly like me, but anyway. I'm Draco Malfoy. What about you?" the girl turned paler, and she blanched. 

"You're joking. That's my name too." Draco raised his other eyebrow. 

"Your name's Draco too?" The girl frowned impatiently. 

"No, you fool! Yeah, my name's Draco. That's it." The voice was so dripping with scarcasm that Draco winced. "No, my last name is the same as yours. It's Malfoy. Celeste Malfoy," she looked around and jumped off the table. Ron cleared his throat. 

"Errm, Malfoy, Celeste?" Celeste turned around to face the red-haired boy. 

"Yes?" Ron pointed to the dark-scaled dragon, Nightshade, who was eating his food greedily. Sunsmear was doing the same at Lavender Brown's plate. 

"Your, err, is this a dragon? Well, what ever it is, it's eating my food," Celeste snapped her fingers, trying to call the dragons down. 

"Nightshade! Sunsmear! You know better!" the two dragons got off the table sheepishly, whimpering as they rubbed against her legs. Celeste clucked, as both dragons had food smeared all over their muzzles. She reached over and grabbed a cloth napkin from the Gryffindor table, and began running it over their faces, to wipe the mashed potatoes off their sleek scales. 

"Are those your dragons?" asked Hermione, bending over to get a closer look at Sunsmear. He snapped at her. 

"Yes. I found them at the beginning of the summer, and they've been nothing but trouble since," she finished, tapping Nightshade on the head. Nightshade stuck her tongue out playfully at her. 

Celeste stood up. "Would anyone mind telling me where I am?" A familiar voice called her from the other end of the school. Katelin Kormic came running up to her. 

"Hey Celeste! This is Hogwarts, the place you've been reading about," Katelin came to a grinding halt in front of her feet. She waved at the pair of dragons. "Hey, Sunsmear. What's up, Nightshade?" both dragons looked up from Celeste's feet and snorted. 

"They say hello," Celeste said. Harry knocked his goblet of pumpkin punch over. The orangish liquid spilled onto the floor, where the dragons preceeded to lap it up. 

"You can talk to dragons?" Celeste shrugged nonchalantly. 

"Sure. I can also talk to birds, cats, snakes, frogs, bats, rats, elephants, anything you can think of. Well, execpt for the horsefly, and the duck-billed-platypus, but that's only 'cause I haven't tried to yet," the table stared open-mouthed. 

"Wow. I can only speak to one animal, and I thought that was something," Harry said, flabbergasted. Celeste giggled. 

"That is something. It's just that I have Wild Magic. I can also shape-shift to any animal I wish, but I haven't had the desire to do that yet." Hermione glowered. 

"I'm jealous." Celeste flashed her a sharp smile that looked oddly like a very smug sneer. 

"You should be," Celeste poked back playfully, cornflower blue eyes dancing around mischeviously in her head. Dumbledore spoke. 

"Well, this has sure been an intresting dinner. Miss Malfoy, have you any relation to Mr. Malfoy over there, for chance?" Celeste looked at Draco, and they both shrugged. 

"Maybe. I mean, we look alike, and I don't think that Malfoy is a very common name and all..." Dumbledore nodded. 

"I see. Is that your wand?" Celeste looked at the dark-brownish-reddish wand that was protruding out of her hand. 

"No," she said, a bit embarrassed. "This is Mrs. Kormic's wand, I picked it up from Sunsmear to give it back to her, and I was transported here by mistake..." Dumbledore held out his hand. 

"Give it here, and I will make sure it gets back to Mrs. Kormic." Celeste tightened her grip on the wand. She had lived on the street before, after all, and she knew better than to give valuable stuff to people on a whim. 

"How do I know I can trust you?" she nearly spat at him. Dumbledore sighed, took out his wand and muttered something. The wand flew out of Celeste's grip, and into Dumbledore's waiting open hand. He waved it and muttered something else, and the wand disappeared. Celeste felt a rush of rage - she didn't like being defied. A wave of copper-yellow fire rippled through the ground, making the room gasp. A split-second later, the window above the High Table shattered, and birds of all types came hurtling though the air at Dumbledore. Celeste saw her error at once. 

"No! NO! NO! Turn back! I didn't mean it! I'm fine!" the birds came to a screeching halt and flew back out the broken window. The entire room gawked at her, and Celeste felt herself turn red. 

"Err, sorry about that. It kind of happens that way when I'm angry.." Dumbledore sighed, waved his wand again, and the little glass shards went back into the window - it was as if she was watching a video in slow rewind. When he'd finished, Dumbledore turned to the now open mouthed Celeste. 

"No problem. Now, I suppose that we can bring out the Sorting Hat one more time for this fine young lady..." 

Celeste's breath caught. She had read all about the Sorting Hat. That could only mean one thing...They were admitting her to Hogwarts! She wanted to jump up and down and scream with happiness. 

A severe women, looking about in her late thirties, early forties, came out with a ragged looking hat. She set it on a stool, and motioned for Celeste to sit on it. Celeste did so, and the woman dropped the hat on her head. Celeste waited. 

"Oooh, a student with Wild Magic. I haven't seen one of your type in...in forever, I do believe. Well, you're too tart for Ravenclaw, too tough for Hufflepuff, too shrewd and cautious for Gryffindor, and too thoughtful for Slytherin. Hmm. Well, since it's a tie between the four of them, I suppose I'll put you where your family has been for centuries...." 

"SLYTHERIN!" screamed the hat. The Slytherin table whooped and cheered, while the other three tables clapped grudgingly. Draco threw an arm around his sisters shoulders. 

"Welcome to the family, Celeste," he said, sounding quite pleased the Celeste wasn't chosen for any of the 'lesser' houses. Celeste grinned and shook his arm off him. She whistled over to her dragons, who were mooching food off of people from the Ravenclaw table. They came over to her obediently, and batted at the old hat, which was still dangling from her ear. Celeste laughed and handed the hat back to the severe looking woman, who gave her a thin smile before taking it from her. Celeste walked over to the Slytherin table, following her brother. 

# # # 

Somewhere in a cave under Bulgaria, a figure sat. The cave was old, musty and smelled of damp and decay. In these sorts of places, you just get the flesh-creeping sensation that something evil is always brewing in a metaphorical cauldron, even if the real cauldron is off the fire and hanging on the wall. Well, in this case, the cauldron was on the fire, and simmering something unpleasant, in the form of a gluey, goopy green mess. The figure that sat over it waved a broken half of a wand over the cauldron, and a scene appeared on the glossy surface of it. A scene of a young girl calling on a large flock of birds to attack an older man. The figure tapped the broken wand on the side of the cauldron, intrested. That power could be harnessed and used for the figures own purposes...the scene melted into nothing. Soon, the figure could only see it's own reflection in the smooth green surface; matted black hair that straggled down to about it's mid back, and a pair of unfathomable dark blue-gray eyes. The figure's name was Synthia Grindelwald. Many would have considered her pretty, but she never bothered much about her looks to care. She was the granddaughter of the great dark wizard Grindelwald, and would be living the high life, if not for that confounded do-gooder Dumbledore. Instead she was hiding beneath ground, with a broken wand. Synthia tried to bring the scene back, but the broken wand didn't have enough power to bring back the image. Cursing blackly, she tossed the wand against the cave wall. 

"Craggle! Snare!" Synthia snarled into the blackness. For a couple of seconds, there was no noise, with the execption of the steady drip-drip of water running down the stalactites, but then there was the pattering of feet. Two giant lizards appeared. Their looks could resemble that of a small dinosaur, about five feet tall apiece. They each wore a leather belt with knives stuck in them, and held a bow in their hands. They had a quiver full of bows on their backs. They were Lizfolos. 

"Yesss, Misssstresss Ssssynthia?" Craggle asked, twirling his bow around his fingers while answering. 

"I want to send you on a mission for me," Synthia rasped wither her hoarse voice, as she rose, her soiled robes dragging on the ground, as they were a bit large for her. 

"And what would that be, Misstress Ssynthia?" Snare asked. Synthia sighed. Snare was a bit better at speech than Craggle was, but not by that much. 

"I want you to kidnap this one child for me," Synthia ordered. She got up to retrive her wand that she had hurled at the wall earlier. Craggle cleared his throat. 

"Why?" Synthia straightened, broken wand back in her grip. She ran her nose down her sleeve before answering. "The child has power that I could use, it might be of some assistance, I think that the child attends Hogwarts," Synthia finished, tapping the cauldron, trying to get it to produce the image again. It wouldn't. Craggle and Snare gasped. 

"Ssssynthia!" Craggle protested feebily. "Dumbedore resssidesss there! Even your grandfather wasss reluctant to try to challenge him!" Synthia smacked the cauldron very hard, making some of the green slop slosh out. 

"And where's my grandfather today?" she shrieked at the reptilian pair. "He's wasting away in a cell in Azkaban! So's my parents, my aunts, and everybody else! Even my baby brother!" her eyes began to water dangerously. "You see? I'm their only hope! I can't let my family down!" she went back to her cauldron. 

"What doess thiss child look like, Ssynthia?" Snare sighed, scuffing the hard earth floor with a two-toed foot. "Whitish-blond hair, I don't know what color eyes, but the child is in Slytherin, I believe. I'm not entirely sure what sex the person is either," she said thoughtfully. Snare and Craggle looked at each other. 

"Are you sssure that that'sss enough information to go on?" Craggle asked. Synthia glared at him. 

"Yes," she snapped. "You can use your dragon magic to put the house to sleep, and I can give you something to keep the child quiet while you take him or her," she handed them a small jar of yellow powder. 

"This is essence of silence. Just put a pinch on the victim's tongue and he or she will be silent for hours," Synthia gave an evil smirk. 

Craggle shrugged. "See you later, Missstresss," a loud pop, and the scaley twosome were gone. Synthia sighed and sat down, using a cushion of moss as a pillow. 

The only thing to do now was wait.


	4. A Satire of an Ending

The time after she was sorted passed as a sort of delirum to Celeste. After a few more tests by Dumbldore, she was proclaimed not a witch, but a mage. She was given sleek copper robes, instead of the normal black ones, and they were richer and more detailed too. Instead of a wand, which she couldn't use anyway, she was given a staff that was five feet tall, nearly as tall as herself. It was slim, but sturdy, in a strong ebony wood. It was topped with a crystal sphere, and could be used much like a wand. All she had to do was concentrate, and the crystal sphere would fill with her yellow-copper magic, and she could use it like normal. Her classes were different from most others too, her schedule consisted of: Animal Transfigurations, Care of Magical Creatures, Astronomy, Flight, Magery, Magical control, and Dueling. Most of these were taught by Dumbledore himself, because none of the other teachers knew that much about her magic. Her dragons also followed her everywhere she went, to the chagrin to many people, but Celeste was happy, happier than she had ever been in her entire life. She had also worked on her telepathic connections with Draco, and they could now communicate with eachother on a regular basis. 

On the night of the assault prepared by Snare and Craggle, luck would have it, Celeste was called out to the Astronomy tower to do some stargazing. She said goodnight to her fellow Slytherins, and left with the dragons to the Astronomy tower. It was around eleven-thirty. An hour later, the reptilian pair attacked. 

# # # 

Draco Malfoy had had quite a nice year so far. For the first time ever, he had beaten Potter at a Quidditch game, and was getting good enough marks to please even his father. He had a sister who could tame dragons, and had a telepathic link to him. For the first time in his life, he was getting the feeling that he was forming a dependant link with another human, his sister. Although he wouldn't admit it for worlds, he was very fond of his animal loving sister, despite the fact that she got along with the Gryffindors. 

On the night of the attack, after he had said goodnight to his sister, he had talked with his friends Crabbe and Goyle for a while, then at around midnight, went to his bedroom. He got dressed in his night robes, and slid into his feather-soft bed. Curling up in it, he fell asleep, only to be awakened rudely a half-hour later. 

# # # 

Snare and Craggle were walking though the halls of Hogwarts, invisibly cloaked, doing very well, and making good time. They had only met up with four other people, all of them teachers, and they had put them to sleep. They even got tangled up with a mangy looking cat, whom they had had a tussle with, but eventually put her down into a deep slumber. Following their misstresses directions, they made it to the enterance of the Slytherin common room. Making a magical sign that would open up even the heaviest charmed doors, they entered. There were only about two people milling about the room, and Snare easily put them to sleep with a easy charm of his own. Craggle walked up to the fire, that was still roaring, and took out a bottle of greenish liquid. 

"Hold your breath," he warned Snare. He threw the vial of liquid into the fire, and the fire sprang around, and then flew out of the fireplace. It zoomed over the walls, leaving a faint green sheen over the stone. In an elapsed time of about five minutes, the fire had travled the entire length of the Slytherin house, and was back to crackling in the fireplace, red as before, as if nothing had ever happened. 

Snare and Craggle began their search. They turned the girls half of the house topsy-turvy, and half the boys part, before finding their quarry - or so they thought. When they saw Draco Malfoy, who fit their description, they tore off the bed curtains, waking him up. For some unknown reason, he was unaffected by the sleeping spell. Naturally, when he woke up to see two dinosaur-like things looming over him, his first reaction was to scream. But before he could get the sound out of his throat, the reptile on his left - Snare - jammed a bottle of powder over his open lips. He got an entire mouthful of the stuff, which was salty, sour, and bitter tasting all at once. He squirmed in futile under his cover, and Snare took the bottle away, smirking. He leaned over the bed to spit the yellow stuff out, and he came back up. When he did, the other reptile slapped a hand on his head. Before he could react, his body fell limp, and he couldn't move. Craggle had done a energy-sucking curse on him. He had to fight to breathe, let alone struggle against the scaley hands that picked him up and slung him over it's shoulder. They walked out of his bedroom, Craggle and Snare talking in little hisses; their native language. Draco's mind panicked, it was screaming at him different commands, and Draco's body didn't know which to follow. Finally, his mind settled on one plea. 

__

Help me! 

# # # 

__

Help me! Celeste was in the Astronomy tower, looking through a telescope at Jupiter, when she got the call from her brother. She rubbed her sleepy eyes, and saw the the Astronomy professor, Professor Copperpot, was snoring in his chair. With him otherwise occupied, she stepped away from her magicked telescope. 

__

What's the matter? There was no responce, which struck Celeste as omnious, because normally, Draco would chatter endlessly if Celeste didn't shut him out. From the corner of her eye, she saw movement flash on the ground. A quick yank on her telescope put them into focus. Two figures on foot were carrying something else, though it was too dark and she was too far away to see what they were for sure. She looked down at her two dragons, who were sleeping next to her. Celeste nudged at them with the toe of her boot. 

"Get up, you two," Nightshade opened one sleepy eye and yawned. Sunsmear didn't move at all. Celeste nudged at him until he acknowledged her existance by swatting at her with a paw. 

"I need you two to follow those two figures out there for me, kay?" they grudgingly got up and fluttered out a window that Celeste held out for them. 

Celeste sprinted down the hallways, seeing nobody, and all the candles were out, leaving her in the dark. "Something is fishy here," she muttered to herself. Stopping for a moment, she tapped her staff against the floor three times, and the crystal globe on top filled with a copper light, throwing shadows over everything. She ran, until she met up with the severe looking woman that she now knew was Professor McGonagall, and she was sprawled out on the floor. 

"Professor McGonagall?" Celeste asked timidly, poking her with the end of her staff. McGonagall rolled over and uttered a little snort; she was sleeping. Now Celeste knew something was wrong. People just don't go to sleep in the middle of hallways, particularly respected professors. 

The wind whistled through an open window, and Celeste shivered. It was cold out. Looking back down at the professor, Celeste saw that she wore a coat-cloak over her teacher's robes. Celeste bit her lip in consideration, and started to untie the cloak. 

"Please don't give me detention for this," Celeste begged the sleeping professor as she tied the cloak under her own chin. The professor only snored in reply. Gripping her staff tigher, she walked out the doors. 

# # # 

It had been about ten minutes, and Draco began to panic. Where was Celeste? Did she even hear him at all? Where was he going, anyway? The salty-sour-bitter tang of that powder that these monsters made him swallow was still on his tongue. He spat on the ground, and the lizard things went on hissing. Then they stopped. Draco didn't know why, and would have asked, but the powder had taken away his voice, as well as put a bad taste in his mouth. Abruptly he was flung in the dirt, his back hitting a lumpy stick. He screamed with pain in his mind. The things went on hissing and pointing at him. Finally the one on the right - Craggle - bent over, and with a claw, shredded his night robes until they came off. And he thought he had been cold before. Now he could testify as freezing. He was also quite embarrassed, as he was basically naked. The monsters started to talk in english. 

"Do you really think that was nessasary, Craggle? Do you really think that they enchanted his clothes to keep him safe?" the other monster - Craggle - answered. 

"You can never be too cautious, Snare. Magic like this kid has is very rare, and they go to any length to protect it." It all clicked in Draco's mind now. They were after his sister, for her magic, not him. He wanted to yell at these stupid creatures, but he couldn't. He couldn't even go through the loud motions of sneezing, for crying out loud. 

The wind picked up, biting at Draco's unprotected skin, and whistling through what little clothing he did have on. He started to shiver madly, and - Snare - picked him up and carried him off again. 

# # # 

Celeste ran through the Forbidden Forest, following the trail of light gold dust that her dragons left behind. She tripped on an upturned root, and it put out her light. Cursing, she relit her staff, and saw that part of the crystal sphere had been broken off. Cursing again, more vividly this time, she got up and started to run again, but was intrupted by the soft patter of hooves behind her. The hair on her neck stood up, and she whirled around to find a unicorn. Her breath caught. It seemed to glow in the dark light, and she lost concentration on the light in her staff, her light wavered and flickered until it extinguished again, but, no matter. The unicorn gave off more than enough light. It walked up closer to her. 

__

You are Celeste Malfoy, the Wild one. You have the magic. It was not a question asking her name, rather, it was a statement. Celeste nodded dumbly as the beautiful creature came up closer to her. 

__

You seek the pale headed one, that was carried off by the reptile enemy, do you not? Celeste had no idea who the 'reptile enemy' was, but she assumed that the unicorn meant Draco as the 'pale headed one'. The unicorn was in touching distance now. It sniffed the air, and sided up to her. 

__

I am Cormica, the unicorn. I believe that I could be in service to you in your search. Can you ride? Celeste nodded again, and climbed onto the unicorn's pure white back. She grabbed onto it's golden mane, and they were off. 

It was like nothing Celeste had ever experienced. Even though she had ridden before on Pegasteeds, and they gave rides as smooth as anything, but this was maginificent, to say the least. It was smoother than butter, and faster than a swift flying in a marathon. In less than five seconds, or so it seemed, they had caught up with two figures, the one holding something over it's shoulder, like a sack of potatoes. Using a skill she had learned from McGonagall in Animal Transformations, she turned her eyes into cat eyes, so she could see well in the dark. The two walking figures were lizard things, and the thing they carried was Draco. She urged Cormica faster, so they could take them by surprise. Surprise they did. Celeste wound up and smacked the lizard-thing that didn't have Draco - Craggle - over the head with her staff as she sped past. He collapsed on the ground, wailing a lizard's wail of pain, his two-fingered hands covering a large gash in his head. 

"What the hell?" Snare was so surprised that he dropped Draco, who fell with a silent cry and rolled into a sharp bush. Celeste rode by again, and lept off Cormica's back, landing with a battle yell in battle stance in fromt of the two lizards, who stared, flabbergasted. 

"Two? There's _two_ of you?!" Snare cried. Celeste threw her head back, laughed, and tightened her grip on her staff as she spoke. 

"No, you slimy thing. There's only one of us here with the magic that you're seeking, and that's me. You've got my brother, you stupid creatures," as she spoke, her chipped globe on top of her staff began to glow with her copper-yellow light. The lizards gnashed their teeth. 

"We've been deceived! Come on, Craggle! Two against one, we've got the dead advantage!" The battle was a long a well-fought one. Dragon and Dark magic clashed with Celeste's Wild magic, and they both were held at bay for quite a while. Then the lizards started to use their claws and teeth. Celeste screamed in pain as sharp claws tore into her flesh. Suddenly, two blurs zinged past her and clamped onto the monsters in fron of her. The lizards reared back in pain. Celeste smiled when she saw Nightshade and Sunsmear bravely biting into Snare and Craggle's flesh, and not letting go. She tried to get up, but was in too much pain. A wave of copper power ran along the ground. Celeste grinned. That could only mean one thing...Werewolves bounded out from the leafy undergrowth and attacked with claws and teeth. The lizards hissed in pain. Finally, one of them - Craggle - looked up. 

"This isn't over yet, brat!" he and Snare hissed something, and they were gone in a flash of light. The werewolves ran back into the woods, and Nightshade and Sunsmear helped Celeste up. 

"Thanks, you guys, I owe you," the two dragons smiled and rubbed up against her affectionately. Celeste half walked-half stumbled over to the place where Draco lay. His energy had been basically zapped, but the silence powder had worn off, and Celeste drug him to a sitting position. They both blushed furiously when Celeste noticed that he wore almost no clothing. 

"Christ, man, what did they do to your clothes?" Celeste asked. Draco blushed a deeper red when she issued this question. 

"It isn't like I wanted to be drug around the forest, tongue tied and half-naked at night, you know. You wouldn't happen to have anything for me to wear, I'm really cold," his teeth were chattering so much that his lips had trouble forming the words. Celeste sighed. 

"No...Oh, wait. You can have this," she took off her coat and wrapped it around his shoulders. He sighed in relief at it's warmness. 

"Thank you," those words sounded funny on his tongue. Celeste smiled as she buttoned up his front for him. 

"Nah. What are sisters for?" Draco cracked a scarcastic grin at this. 

"For chance, they wouldn't happen to be for running after little kidnapped brothers, would they?" Celeste rolled her eyes back into her head. 

"That's one of their many uses, yes." Impulsively, Draco leaned on her shoulder, just for a moment. Celeste smiled again as she helped him up. 

"I don't think you're in any shape to walk back to the school." Draco shook his head, his voice hoarse. 

"I don't think so either..." To Celeste's ears only, the unicorn intrupted. 

__

My mate, Tankisie, and I will give you a ride back to the school, if you so wish. Draco saw the sudden look of concentration on Celeste's face. 

"What's the matter?" Celeste sighed. 

"The unicorns said that they would give us a ride back. You wanna?" Draco's tired gray eyes widened in shock. He nodded, but then sagged, and Celeste had to catch him. 

"We accept," Celeste told the unicorns. Cormica whistled, and another unicorn appeared out of the trees, identical to Cormica in every way, execpt for the fact that she had a silver mane, in stark contrast to Cormica's golden one. It must be Tankisie, Celeste decided. 

They climbed on, and rode, until Celeste felt her eyes droop. She tried to stay awake, but she fell asleep, without her minds permission to do so. 

# # # 

"Idiots!" Synthia screeached at her subjects, who winced. "Fools, morons, blockheads, jackasses!" Snare and Craggle shut their eyes. 

"But misstresss, ssshe had the werewolves on her ssside..." Craggle tried to explain to her, but Synthia would have none of it. 

"Silence!" she roared. Craggle was scared into silence. "You're part dragon, and dragon magic can beat werewolf magic anyday!" Snare growled in his throat. 

"It wassen't our fault..." he was silenced by a smack to the left side of his scaley face. Synthia was totally red with fury. 

"I can't believe that I even put up with your sheer stupidity! If you weren't the only useless things around here that would listen to me, I would have gotten rid of you a long time ago! Get out of my face! You'd better hope not to see me for a long time, you idiotic reptiles!" with that, Synthia stomed away. Snare and Craggle watched her go. 

"Remind me," Craggle said bitterly, "why do we listen to her babble in the first place?" Snare sighed and kicked at the ground aimlessly. 

"Because we're her binded ssslavesss, Craggle," he said sadly. Craggle pressed a hand to his forehead. 

"It's daysss like thisss, Sssnare, that I wisssh I was never born." Snare nodded understandingly, and they both walked away. 

# # # 

Word had spread that both Malfoys had been abducted by something, or someone, and the entire school had been herded into the Great Hall, in their pajamas. It reminded them something of what had happened the night Sirius Black had been found over Ron with a knife. Harry sat down on the floor. He was tired, but it was too bright out to go back to bed. Ron sat next to him, followed by Hermione. 

"I wonder what happened to them," Hermione said, chin in her hands. Ron snorted grumpily. 

"If this is all some joke that Malfoy pulled, I'm going to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze so hard that.." Harry intrupted him. 

"I don't think it was a joke, Ron. There was some serious magic going on in the Slytherin dorms, and I don't think that Malfoy could have pulled it all off without someone noticing," Hermione nodded in agreement, and the threesome preceeded to stare out at the rising sun. 

# # # 

Celeste was awakened by a nudge to her forehead. It was the unicorn. She opened her eyes to see the school in front of her face. The unicorn nickered. 

__

We have served our purpose. We leave you at your destination, and we go now. Celeste nodded. 

"Thank you," she whispered to their backs as they disappeared into the Forbidden Forest. She saw Draco and her two dragon kits, sprawled on the lawn. She went over to Draco and shook his shoulder. He looked worse for wear; he had little nicks and scratches all over his body, and a large gash on his back. He opened one eye with a groan, and shot awake at once. Celeste notied that his eyes widened when they located on her body. Looking down, she saw that she had five large gashes down her front from the claws of the lizard things, as well as bite marks. The dragons had their own bumps and bruses from battle. They all rose, and nearly fell over. The dragons caught Draco before he fell over, and Celeste leaned on her staff. They all hobbled towards the school. 

# # # 

Harry was drifting in and out of sleep, when the door slammed open. The hall fell silent at once, and the teachers lept to their feet, with wands. 

"Who's there? We're armed!" called Dumbledore in the steeliest voice that Harry had ever heard him use. 

"It's only us, you don't have to shoot," the soft voice, though sounding very mangled and worse for wear, was familiar. Both Malfoys came into the hall, lurching about. Ron stared at Draco, who was swaying in his spot. 

"What happened to you both?" he asked, repulsed. Draco looked back at him, pouring what fire he had left in him into his eyes. 

"Did I ask you to put your big head in my life, Weasley?" He was hard to listen to, as he was so hoarse that his voice weaved in and out of his mouth. He fell to his knees and began to cough loudly. Hermione leaned away from him. 

"Are you...Okay?" Draco stopped coughing, but started making little gagging noises in his throat. 

"No," he said scratchily. He swallowed hard, which was a pain to his dry throat, and spoke again. 

"I'm going to be sick," he said faintly. Harry couldn't tell if this was a figure of speech or not, but then when Draco started making funny noises in his throat, he decided that he wasn't kidding after all, and pushed a water pitcher in his direction. Draco grabbed it, and started retching. When he'd finished, he wiped his mouth blearly on his sleeve. Harry thought he looked terrible. He looked as if he had been chewed by a lion, he was sweating like crazy, and was convulsing dangerously. His eyes took on a sudden glossy sheen. 

"Ooooh, look at all the pretty spots...Too many Snitches.." he grabbed at the empty air in front of him, then passed out. Celeste coughed into her sleeve. 

"I don't feel too well myself," she said calmly. Nightshade and Sunsmear came up to her whimpering. They clawed at her robes pitifully. Ron turned to her, and gaped at her bloody, torn clothes. 

"What happened out there?" he repeated the question to Celeste. Blood, half-dried, came off in flakes when she walked. She smiled aimlessly, and Harry could tell that she had slipped into a delirum. 

"Just do me one small favor, okay?" Harry was a bit startled, but nodded feebily. 

"Err, all right. What do you want, Celeste?" Celeste started to weave, but was still smiling at everybody. 

"Just make sure...I...don't...swallow...my...tongue...o...k...a...y?" she stopped weaving, and collapsed onto the tile floor, with a muffled thud. Harry blinked. 

"Err, okay," the two dragons climbed ontop of Celeste's back and started to howl. Ron stuffed his fingers in his ears. 

"Someone shut those stupid things up!" Nightshade snapped at him. Hermione looked at Draco and Celeste. 

"This is going to be one heck of a story to listen to when they wake up...." 

The End.


End file.
